Some people just aren't meant for certain types of jobs. Maybe food service isn't their thing, maybe office jobs aren't their thing, but either way, it's worth sticking it out for just a little bit. Some people don't make it that far. In fact, there are instances where some get fired on their first day. Here are some of the craziest stories, told by the employers themselves.
u/Lo-Fi_Kuzco asked: Managers of Reddit, what made you fire an employee on their first day?
Definitely a rodeo clown.
Customer service desk at an insurance company. Basically just rerouting incoming calls to the relevant claims handler. 18(ish)yo lad comes from a temp agency. Seemed a bit dippy but should have been able to manage this easy job.
After a couple of hours he'd secured his headset to his head by wrapping scotch taped around his head and face several times. Weird but...ok. Checked on him again 15 minutes later and he'd also scotch taped his telephone handset (each workstation had both) to his head in the same manner. Not only that but he'd scotch taped his whole head to his monitor and was just sitting there going "I don't quite know what to do about this" while the call queue stacked up.
I know no one can be quite that inept and it's most likely he was either trying to be funny or he just decided he didn't like the job and wanted out, but I prefer to think he was absolutely mental, and imagine that he's now a stuntman or a rodeo clown or something.
How did she not know what she did wrong?
Giphy
I was assistant manager at Subway. I usually liked to give people time. It's a tougher job than it seems from the outside, everyone sucks at first, and taking someone's livelihood away is not a decision to be made lightly.
But I had one lady who only lasted 3 hours. She was perfectly fine for the first couple minutes, while the store manager was there. But she had a doctor's appointment, so she introduced us and told the new employee I was in charge when she wasn't there. As soon as my boss left, this lady just flatly ignored me when I asked her to do stuff like food prep or dishes. So I was already pretty pissed but trying to be patient. When we got busy, I stationed her putting veggies on sandwiches. She said a few things to customers that annoyed me, but nothing too bad at first. Then one guy asked for extra olives and she told him no. He was a bit offended and asked again, and she practically shouts, "you don't need any more olives, you have plenty!" So I tell her to give him the olives he's asking for.
Then she starts shouting at me about Subway standard veggie portions like I wasn't the one who taught her 45 minutes ago. I tried a little to explain that it's a default amount but customers can get extra, no big deal. She wasn't having it, so I stepped away from my station, gave the poor guy his olives, and apologized. That's when she lost it and started screaming that I was undermining her. I told her to go do dishes and I'd cover her station. She went storming off, thank God.
I was already planning on talking to the store manager about it, because holy sh*t. But as luck would have it, the franchise owner dropped in for something or other. As soon as new girl realized who he was, she started ranting about how I didn't control my veggie portions or some sh*t and I should be fired. When the franchise owner took my side, obviously, she shouted at him too. That was that, except that she called the store manager later, in tears, begging to know what she'd done wrong, and made it sound like she didn't realize I was her boss or that shouting at the owner about how he doesn't know how to run a business is inappropriate.
A big no-no.
The guy signed a non disclosure as we were working around movie sets and production offices. Throughout the day he continuously asked if he could take photographs. Finally, I realized that his employment was not worth risking my own employment or the production companies information. He was relocated elsewhere but, he did not last long from what I hear.
'Cause that makes sense....
She just left, I couldn't find her anywhere. Called her later at her parent's home and fired her. Mom was pissed... at me.
"I'm sorry ma'am but I'm not in the business of employing people that don't work for me."
"Just a child".
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"I know my application said I can work any time but really I can't work nights and weekends." She was hired for nights and weekends.
Used to work in IT support at an airline, which meant shifts and being on call 24/7.
We once had a guy whose mom would call and complain about her boy being forced to do the graveyard shift, because "He's just a child, he shouldn't be treated like this."
Our shift supervisor just told her that we all take turns to do the graveyard shift, and that your boy is a grown man in his 20s, so he should learn to act like one.
That sounds very dangerous.
Guy lied about knowing how to drive forklift. Drove into support beam.
To Europeans: there's no such thing as a forklift license in the US. When you go to a new job you have to redo the exam again. There's also no official exam so every place does it their own way.
How misleading.
He interviewed really well, seemed excited to be a part of, kept mentioning his mom (in a "what a nice boy" way). He even brought his mom in after we hired him, she seemed really nice too. It's not so weird when you consider how small town is.
His first day? He showed up like a space cadet. Seemed to barely understand English, wasn't making eye contact with anyone but staring off into the distance like crazy, asking if he could take an early lunch 45 min into his shift. Dude was high off his gourd and we politely told him it wasn't gonna work out two hours into the day.
That's rude.
Giphy
Girl snorted in disgust when I asked her to clear a table in her section. Wouldn't be shown how to set a table, and snapped at another manager.
"Do you even want to be here?" I asked.
"Not really."
"OK, grab your stuff, good luck to you."
Good luck with that.
Hired a guy on the recommendation of another employee. He no-call no-showed the first day. Second day he no-call no-showed, but halfway through the day called to tell me that his kid was sick (which I'm sympathetic for because I have kids too), but I had to tell him we couldn't use him.
Then waves of abusive texts and phone messages from him and his wife. His final text was super-long and explained how I'd just made it an enemy for life and that he was going to get even by starting up a rival business and putting me out of business. If only he'd put that much energy into showing up.
Crazy sh*t goes down in pubs.
Pub & bar manager here. This happened at my previous pub.
New guy's first shift and he was constantly on his phone and going for cigarette breaks without permission. 2 hours into his shift his mates came in and he gave them all free drinks, shots and snacks, a few of them were under 18. Fired him on the spot and he had the audacity to appeal, despite overwhelming evidence against him including 5 witness statements and cctv, not to mention the stock count deficit.
Edit: just to clarify I'm from the UK, England.